Crafting Magic Items
The creation of a magic item is a lengthy, expensive task. To start, a character must have a formula that describes the construction of the item. The character must also be a spellcaster with spell slots and must be able to cast any spells that the item can produce. Moreover, the character must meet a level minimum determined by the item’s rarity, as shown in the Crafting Magic Items table. For example, a 3rd-level character could create a wand of magic missiles (an uncommon item), as long as the character has spell slots and can cast magic missile. That same character could make a +1 weapon (another uncommon magic item), no particular spell required. You can decide that certain items also require special materials or locations to be created. For example, a character might need alchemist’s supplies to brew a particular potion, or the formula for a flame tongue might require that the weapon be forged with lava. .*To calculate the price of consumables, gold costs are halved; mana crystal costs are quartered (minimum 1). An item has a creation cost specified in the Crafting Magic Items table. Each item’s creation time is listed in its formula. If a spell will be produced by the item being created, the creator must expend one spell slot of the spell’s level for each day of the creation process. The spell’s material components must also be present throughout the process. If the spell normally consumes those components, they are consumed by the creation process. If the item will be able to produce the spell only once, the components are consumed only once by the process. Normally, a character who undertakes this activity creates a magic item described in chapter 7, “Treasure.” At your discretion, you can allow players to design their own magic items, using the guidelines in chapter 9, “Dungeon Master’s Workshop.” While crafting a magic item, a character can maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay the 1 gp per day, or a comfortable lifestyle at half the normal cost (see chapter 5, “Equipment,” of the Player’s Handbook). Consumable items (potions, scrolls, wands, etc.) usually cost only half as much as indicated on the table. For instance, a Potion of Healing, a common item, costs 50 gp instead of the indicated 100 gp. Mana Crystals Knowledgeable artificers are able to estimate what is required to create an item even without knowing its exact formula. Over millennia of study, they have categorized the magic items into common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and legendary. Unlike the others, common items can usually be created using relatively mundane ingredients. The Potion of Healing, for instance, can be crafted using various combinations of slightly-magical medicinal herbs which are known to all herbalists and cultivated in all civilized locales. And so the primary limiting factor in creating these items is the labor time required to obtain, create, and process their ingredients. Stepping up to uncommon magic items, we find that things become much more complex. The reagents required to create the items are not common. They can’t be created or obtained through easily-replicable methods. In the past that may not have been the case, which might explain the commonality of ancient magical items; if it ever was easy to make magic items, it certainly isn’t any longer! Uncommon and greater magic items require much more potent magical power sources than can be found in everyday life. They require solidified magical energy in the form of mana crystals. Long ago, these crystals were as common as tin or gold, but unlike those metals, mana crystals can be used up—lost to the world forever. When one makes a powerful potion using mana crystals, the crystals’ power is lost when the potion if consumed. Slowly over time, this attrition has reduced the world’s supply of mana crystals to nearly nothing. What were once a common sight, with the crystals being worn as jewelry by those of means, are now unknown to all but the most learned scholars. Legend has it that most of the world’s mana crystal supply was exhausted in the war between the dragons and the gods. All that remains are the rare veins that have not yet been sniffed out by dwarves, dark elves, or the other denizens of the underdark. Artificers know that it is a simple task to predict how many mana crystals are required to produce an item. If you know its rarity, you can determine how many mana crystals are used in its construction, as noted in the Creating Magic Items table above. Once used, the mana crystals are not lost forever. Artificers hold ancient secrets which allow them to break down an item and recover some of the mana crystals used in its construction. The item is destroyed in the process. When complete, one half of the mana crystals required to originally create the item are recovered by the artificer. This process requires expensive alchemical ingredients costing 100 gp for each mana crystal to be recovered. Ancient stories amongst artificers tell of legendary craftsmen who were once able to recover all of the mana crystals from an item with no losses. If true, these secrets have been lost to time. Brewing Potions Potions of Healing fall into a special category for item crafting, separate from other magic items. A character proficient with the herbalism kit or with alchemist’s supplies can create them. It takes one week to brew potions (assuming the ingredients needed are at hand; it can take months or years to prepare the ingredients, depending on the potion). Potions can be prepared in batches of any size, though creating large batches can require specialized cauldrons or other containers. The default assumption is that the container requires a volume capable of holding one gallon of water for each potion to be created. Extremely large batches can be unwieldy, often requiring many assistants. Scribing Scrolls With time and patience, a spellcaster can transfer a spell to a scroll, creating a spell scroll. This activity represents the time and effort it takes to produce such an item. Resources Scribing a spell scroll takes mana crystals and costly ingredients based on the level of the spell you wish to scribe, as shown in the Spell Scroll Costs table. Scribing a scroll takes one day for each of its levels. You must also provide any material components required by the spell. Moreover, you must have the spell prepared or among your known spells in order to scribe a scroll of it, and you must have proficiency in the Arcana skill. If you scribe a cantrip, the version on the scroll works as if the caster is 1st level. ''' '''Magic Item Formulae +1 Weapon (Uncommon) Enchanting time: 1 week. Reagents: 2 mana crystals. 100 gp worth of magnets, copper wire, and other assorted mundane materials. Potion of Healing (Common) (Consumable) Enchanting time: 1 week. Reagents: 25 gp worth of commonly-available herbs. Requires either an Herbalism Kit or Alchemist’s Supplies. For reference, here are the costs for the more powerful variants: